Malta Air never wanted to strike a deal with cabin crew members which it has now said it will make redundant, the General Workers’ Union has claimed. 

The airline, which is jointly owned by Ryanair and the Maltese government, said on Tuesday that it would be making 40 crew members redundant after talks with the GWU over cabin crew conditions failed. 

It said it had been seeking "modest pay cuts" to staff and had offered a minimum pay guarantee, with a review after three years.  

The redundancies had been on the cards since May, when the airline had said it would have to lay off around 60 staff members due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting travel. 

The GWU had intervened to negotiate on workers’ behalf, to try and avoid those redundancies.

On Wednesday, the union said that Malta Air had wanted to scrap a four-year deal signed in November 2019 and instead introduce a new one with 10 per cent pay cuts, retroactively applicable to June, while also refusing to provide workers with a guarantee that their jobs were safe. 

It said that the deal proposed by the airline also included a pay grade which was below the statutory minimum permitted by law.

The GWU said that 85 per cent of the Malta Air workers it represented had voted on Monday against accepting this new proposal, and that it had duly informed the airline of the results of that vote and sought a conciliatory meeting. The GWU represents 91 per cent of Malta Air staff. 

But no meeting was set, and the airline instead said that it would be proceeding with the redundances. 

The GWU, however, said it was willing to return to the negotiating table and thrash out an agreement, provided that the airline truly wanted to save the jobs and was willing to do so without having to threaten workers or union representatives.